Thrash metal singer killed in an apparent murder-suicide

If you’re deep into thrash metal, you may have run across an Ohio band called Critical Khaos, fronted by Steve Cain. By day he worked in safety and environmental management for an R&D company in the Cincinnati area. In addition to the band, he was a published author with 13 books to his credit, including a horror novel.

Despite all that, Steve and his family had some serious financial issues

Real-life horror came to his house the morning of February 27 when he and members of his family were killed in an apparent-murder suicide.

As mortgage company officials approached the house to serve the family with an eviction notice (they were accompanied by cops, a routine procedure in these cases), they found Steve’s wife, Theresa on the front porch. Everything seemed normal enough. She’d acknowledged what was about to happen and asked for a little more time to pack up. She promised that she’d be out of the house that Monday (February 27) at 10 am.

But when she ducked inside, multiple gunshots were heard–five in about 3.5 seconds. When they entered the house, they found five people all suffering from gunshot wounds.

Steve (who is believed to have been killed first), her 13-year-old son Ethan, and her 74-year-old father were all dead. A daughter, 20-year-old Samantha, was critically injured. She’s now in a coma but is expected to recover. It appeared after shooting her family, Theresa retreated upstairs and shot herself. A .38-caliber gun was used. All the victims had been awake and may not have been aware of what awaited them. The whole tragedy is being treated as a murder-suicide perpetrated by Theresa.

Looking through the house, nothing was packed. It appeared she’d hidden the eviction from the family, even though the mortgage company had foreclosed on the property last May.

The band made this statement.